[riverrunner]

There is no dought that the many road blocks put up are to make sure that as few as pilots are arms as possible. If we had more armed pilots we would need fewer air marshalls cutting back another government program.

We could do away with the air marshall program saving millions of dollars in taxs by arming all the pilots.

[southland]

As a former FAA Air Traffic Controller I totally understand why things are so screwed up.
I and other retired Air Traffic Controllers consider it one of the eights wonders of the world that any one in the FAA had the guts to close down all air traffic on 9-11.
This one fact probably thwarted several other hijacking.
I have read other incidents on this forum that convinces me of this.
The strike by Air Traffic Controller was not what media presented. I left the system a fews years earlier for essentially the same reasons but I am afraid President Reagan was quite misinformed.
I left the system because of lack of air traffic safety. A poll should be taken of how many Air Traffic controllers fly on commercial aircraft. Results likely would be eye opening.
I am also a former Air Force Pilot who flew in the Strategic Air Command. I knew relatively nothing of the system until I got into Air Traffic Control.